What Took so Long?

 

     As a corollary to my recent post, I wanted to address some questions that come to mind when considering the seeming collapse of a Governor Cuomo’s political career. Why do all these scandals seem to be coming to light now? What was holding them back during the second half of 2020? Perhaps the scandal involving the deliberate under reporting and obscuring of nursing home deaths in New York simply was simply taking time to develop and uncover. Extensive reports like the one issued back in January by New York Attorney General Laticia James take time to research and write. It is reasonable to conclude that the attorney general’s office simply wanted to make sure they had it right before they published such a damning report. However, what is perhaps more questionable is why the allegations of sexual harassment took so long to acquire media attention and attention from other political leaders in New York and around the country. Lindsey Boylan initially made allegations against Governor Cuomo back in December 2020. Her story did not get traction until recent weeks. Furthermore, the events that the other accusers allege took place also occurred in 2020. It is certainly fair to say that victims of sexual harassment and/or assault often have a very difficult time coming forward for a number of reasons, and this is certainly not to say that they should have conducted themselves differently; they are allowed to process their own trauma on their own timeline. However, it is interesting that the media is deciding now is the time to place focus on the sexual harassment scandal which, as mentioned earlier, was originally alleged by Ms. Boylan back in December.

     Brendan Nyhan, a professor at Dartmouth College, published an interesting study in The British Journal of Political Science which might shed some light on this. In the study, Nyhan looked at what makes a scandal against a U.S president more likely to develop and be covered by the media. Nyhan found support for the theories that scandals often develop when there more intense opposition from the opposing party and when there is there is less congestion in the news media. Nyhan suggested that these factors are also applicable to scandal development against other political leaders, especially state governors. Perhaps this is what is taking place with Governor Cuomo. Now that Donald Trump has left office and is no longer taking up a massive amount of media attention, the media has more time to focus on lesser issues and cover “smaller” stories. There was little room for anything outside of Trump for several years and especially in the final days of his presidency - January 6^th comes to mind. With that in the rear-view mirror, the media seems to be taking a more scrutinizing look at political leaders across the country, and unfortunately for Cuomo, he is one of them.

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